KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — The update to Apple’s high-end wireless headphones has been much anticipated — with rumours of the imminent arrival of the AirPods Pro 2nd-gen being almost as prolific as iPhone buzz.
Apple seems just as excited as AirPods Pro fans as evidenced from a recent session with Esge Anderson from the company’s acoustics team and Eric Treski from product marketing.
The mission: AirPods Max mini
According to Anderson, the objective going in for the team working on the newest version of the AirPods Pro was to emulate their over-ear model, the AirPods Max.
The thinking, said Anderson, was what if they could “create a version of the Airpods Max that you could put in your pocket and bring with you everywhere.”
Did they succeed? Treski said that so far the feedback they’ve received has been so positive that some customers think the new AirPods Pro are better than the Max.
“We’ve gotten so many great responses from our users and customers who have purchased the products,” said Treski, adding that they’ve received quite a few “Dear Tim” e-mails directed at Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Anderson said they eventually decided to just redesign everything inside the product.
“The most fundamental thing we have in our product is air and that is what my team is actually responsible for.
“We are responsible for how we move the air in the product to make sound,” he said.
The AirPods driver was redesigned though still maintaining the original size and a new amplifier meant to make the best use of the new driver.
Visually, however, the most obvious change was that the two vents on top were merged into one vent.
“It enables us to be able to push more air and have less turbulence inside the product, which leads to less distortion for an overall clearer sound.”
Changing the acoustic design of the AirPods Pro not only improved the sound but the active noise cancellation (ANC), he said.
Changes were also made to the EQ to be able to tune the AirPods Pro according to which devices they’re interacting with.
Anderson said that for instance, “We’ll have one tuning if you’re on a phone call and we will have another tuning if you listen to music or if you use spatial audio.”
The reason for that was to improve the higher frequencies.
“To do that we realised that when people were listening, they were listening at different levels and that affected how they perceive the high frequencies,” he said.
Tweaking the tuning allowed people to still be able to hear those frequencies even at lower volumes without feeling the need to raise the volume, which would be beneficial for their hearing over time.
What also made a difference was the newly-introduced H2 chips, with one embedded in each AirPod Pro that allowed for extra filters as well as creating a more complex ANC system.
Making it personal
One particular change that the acoustics team came up with was the usage of head related transfer function (HRTF).
“You know,” said Anderson, “It’s great when (something) works for most people, but it’s not great when it doesn’t work for all people.”
The new HRTF function in iOS 16 now allows for scanning your ear to create a personalised audio map for each person.
With the ear scan, your unique HRTF is calculated and then pushed to the cloud, so it carries over to all your devices.
“You need to enroll once on one device, and then now you can use it on your Apple TV and all the devices you have,” he said.
When it comes to how the new AirPods Pro improved its transparency function, Anderson explained that it worked not on being selective on what was being cancelled.
Instead, the AirPods Pro detects environmental sound levels and when it passes a certain threshold, the device then turns down the in-ear volume to a level that’s more comfortable.
“It’s just brought down to a level where it’s more comfortable like, say if you go to a concert.”
As to whether Apple would introduce foam tips as an option, Anderson conceded that while foam tips had their users, the company making their own was unlikely as, among other reasons, the nature of foam tips and their lack of durability made it unlikely.
However, Apple has added another size option in the silicon tips that come with the AirPods Pro, now offering an XS option for people with smaller ear canals.
Imitations but no replacements
On the proliferation of wireless earphones that have straight up copied AirPods’ design, Treski said: “It’s so much more beyond just traditional headphones in terms of really just music listening.”
He said that AirPods were now products that were instrumental for customers’ everyday experience, especially in terms of how the devices interact with their environment with adaptive transparency.
“We are trying to make a well-rounded experience across all use cases. I think that the convenience of the product and the experiences that we’re putting into it, our competitors are having a hard time copying that, even though you can copy the form factor or something like it.”
The AirPods being able to seamlessly connect with other Apple devices, staying connected with different devices through every day, “I think that’s what truly makes AirPods Pro so special,” said Treski.
For those interested, you can now purchase the new version of the AirPods Pro on the official online Apple store and at official retailers for RM1,099.
